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Old Sunflower Seeds
I sowed a load of different seeds at the weekend and one lot was a dozen old sunflowers seeds because my fiancé loves them.
The sow by date on the back of the packet was back in 2011. Whats the chances of these actually coming up and if they do will they be healthy plants or are they destined for catastrophic failure? 
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If they germinate they'll be healthy plants. If they've been stored cool and dry they should be OK to germinate
In the sticks near Peterborough
Stored in a cool and dry place hmm, your guess is as good as mine
Time will tell, only been a few days (although the Marigolds are already sprouting through)
Torg,it'd only February,plenty of time to sow more of this lot don't germinate.
I ignore sell by dates on food and seeds and I'm still here to tell the tale.
Tomatoes can germinate after decades .
A useful trick is to put some seed on damp kitchen towel so you can see if they start germinating.
Sow them, what have you got to lose? I've grown excellent plants from very old seeds, some do indeed deteriorate, but most go on for ages - Nature wastes little.
I planted them at the weekend so I will see, from all your comments it sounds like they may turn out to be a winner so fingers crossed.
Getting a bit worried now as I've sown loads of seeds, got no idea where they are all going to go when they grow into plants!
yes Pauline. Sorry, I didn't make that very clear did I?